


To Carry Your Heart With These Bloodstained Hands

by Kosaji



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Violence, Body Horror, Child Abuse, Gen, Gore, Human Experimentation, M/M, Medical Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-24 03:24:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14946687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kosaji/pseuds/Kosaji
Summary: The world isn't a kind or safe place. Hayato finds out the hard way when he's kidnapped by the Estraneo.





	To Carry Your Heart With These Bloodstained Hands

The streets aren't a safe place for children, Hayato finds out the hard way after two weeks spent cold and hungry.

"Hi there kiddo, you lost?" A man in nice clothes and a bright smile asks him. Hayato backs up suspiciously and shakes his head. "No? Don't be scared, I just have a few questions for you," the man says, stepping forward as Hayato takes another step back.

"Leave me alone," Hayato says, turning to run away. Something gets kicked behind him and he jumps, catching the sight of another man with a rag clutched in his hand before it's wrapped around his nose and mouth.

His fingers claw at the hand as he kicks back, trying to get free. The smell of the chemicals in the cloth make him nauseous and soon his struggles weaken as he falls unconscious and is taken away. 

-

Soft sobs wrack through him as Hayato tries to keep quiet. The other children, many around Hayato's age or older ignore him, already numb to their situation. A squeaky hiccup escapes him and he sees three others flinch at the noise, huddled in groups on the floor. 

Hayato tries the breathing exercises one of the older girls showed him when he first woke up here days, weeks ago? He doesn't remember. No one knows what time it is, there's no clock or calendar in the room. 

Tears still block his vision and he blinks hard, rubbing his eyes with his gown. They took his clothes from him, leaving him in a hospital gown just like all the other children. Food came three times a day, along with water and nothing else. The only time someone comes to the room is to take a child. 

Sometimes they never come back. 

Hayato slowly crawls out of the corner he tucked himself into, not looking down at his arms or the white bandages spotted with dried blood. One of the children, a blond boy called Ken moves over, making room for him under the blankets and thin mats they were given to sleep on. 

"Still bleeding?" Chikusa asks from the other side of Ken. Hayato shakes his head and pulls the blanket up higher, huddling with the two boys for warmth. 

"They cut to the bone, I don't think the drug did what it was supposed to," Hayato whispers, always a whisper. Toni's death is still fresh in their minds, a small body just tossed aside because he fought too much. Ken growls, the sound reverberating through his chest deeper than normal through whatever modifications they made to him this week. "You?"

Ken answers for him, "Poison testing again. He couldn't feel his legs, piyon."

Hayato's stomach twists in commiseration. He knows what its like to be poisoned again and again. 

The door opens and everyone freezes in place. One of the researchers, a man with stitches running over his face, looks at the children, some hiding under blankets while other keep their heads down, faces averted, until he finds Hayato and walks over to him. 

"Let's go," he grabs Hayato by the arm, not the injured one to his relief, and pulls him out the door. Hayato tries to drag his bare feet against the tile but the researcher gives him a cold look and switches his hold to the other arm, pressing against the bandages in warning. The rest of the walk to the labs is done in silence, Hayato trailing behind sullenly but not actively resisting. 

They enter a different lab than the ones he's usually dragged to. A lady in a white coat taps her foot impatiently while standing next to a raised table. Hayato catches sight of dull grey metal behind her before he's hoisted up onto the operating table, his body set upwards in sitting position with his hands and legs are strapped down with thick brown straps going across one side of the table to the other. 

"What are you doing?" Hayato demands as the lady picks up the gun from the table. His heart beats furiously in his chest as he struggles against the restraints. He's not dying here, he's NOT.

More people must have come in while he wasn't looking. Hands clamps down his shoulders and yank his head back by the hair, forcing him to watch as the gun is pointed not at him but at one of the researchers. 

The gun goes off, the bang much louder than he expects and the man drops, blood pooling around his head. Hayato watches, sick to his stomach as the lady scientist ignores the body and starts a timer. His head pounds in time to his heartbeat as relief and fear keep him tense on the chair, not willing to call attention to himself. He doesn't know what's going on, doesn't realize what's happening till a giddy laugh escapes him.

No. It's not him. _It's not HIM!_

Hayato squirms, trying to free a hand, a leg, anything, giggling all the while as a foreign presence presses against his head. 

"Go away!" Hayato says, voice hitching and ignores the fascinated gleam in the scientists eyes. The weight in his head increases, memories not his own filling his mind and Hayato screams.

"Oh my, he really is a stubborn thing," Hayato's mouth speaks. No, that's wrong, he's not Hayato he's-

"Are you in full control, Eduard?" The lady scientist asks, making a note on her clipboard. The timer in her hands is gone, and Hayato watches from the very back of his head as his body nods, feet moving back and forth as his hands flex.

"Let's start then," the lady scientist says, pulling a recorder out of her pocket. Pressing a button she starts narrating. "Subject A has been previous injected with Drug 4097Z and showed no signs of distress. Trials will now begin on Flame Activation. Volunteer E has control of Subject A and will attempt to use Sun flames." The woman nods to Eduard.

Heat surges through him as Eduard focuses, pulling something out of Hayato's body to dance along his fingers. Fire, his hand is on fire, Hayato thinks faintly, ready any moment for the pain to kick in. 

It doesn't burn, in fact the pain lessens. The throbbing of his arm is down to a dull ache while the stiffness in his muscles from being trapped in a small room loosens, leaving him almost light-headed with relief. 

"Experiment success, Elda," Eduard says, letting the fire sink into Hayato's skin and disappear. The foreign presence disappears and Hayato is back in control. 

His stomach rolls as he watches the man, Eduard, get up from the floor and dust himself off. There isn't a scratch on him, not even a scar from the gun. Eduard smiles at Hayato before walking past him, towards another man with a clipboard and an eyepatch. 

"Next experiment, after initial possession Subject A will be encouraged to access Sun flames to determine if Drug 4097Z can indeed speed up Flame Activation."

A scalpel is pressed to his left arm. Hayato screams as the blade sinks into flesh, blood dripping down to hit the ground as his arm is cut along his forearm. It burns, and he can't hear them at first when they tell him to heal himself. A harsh slap shuts him up and he takes deep sobbing breaths as he tries to pull on that warm feeling again. 

He tries and tries, but each time he feels like he's got it, that he can grab that warmth and pull it out it escapes. The blood loss makes him dizzy, and his head lolls back against the head rest. 

"Experiment failed. Volunteer F will possess and induce Flame expression in Subject A." The lady- no, her name is Elda. Names are important, Hayato reminds himself, Elda's voice holds no inflection, no sympathy. Just disappointment that an experiment failed and curiosity for what results can be gathered like every other time she runs experiments with them. 

Heavy eyes watch as another man, this one older, with white hair and crooked nose arrives and takes the gun. One bang later the old man's on the ground and in his head, Hayato too tired to even put up a fight against the intrusion. 

Trapped in the back of his head, Hayato feels no pain as he feels the old man wiggle his toes and fingers. Sparks run up his spine instead of the warm feeling as the man focuses inwards like the other one did. The pull is the same but the warmth feels more jagged, almost prickly. 

"What the hell?" His mouth asks. Elda's watching with wide eyes as green runs up and down his body before yellow replaces it, healing his cut. 

"Subject A has shown Lightning flames alongside Sun flames. Volunteer F has a Lightning primary with a Sun secondary. Further testing is required to see if Drug 4097Z can allow different flame expression or if Subject A simply has a Lightning secondary," Elda records quickly, a smile stretching across her mouth that Hayato knows is not good news. 

"Bring in the next volunteer."

-

It's dark when he wakes up, strapped to the damn table again. Two months pass since they first start using the Possession bullet, Hayato only knows because while Elda keeps any information on date and time away from him the people digging through his brain aren't as careful.

Eduardo, Francesca, Lorenzo, Gabriel, Hayato can barely keep himself separate from their memories as they activate his flames over and over again.

They are starting a new set of experiments, Hayato can tell from Elda's delighted smile. She's always happiest when she thinks up new tortures for them to go through. He doesn't know what else they can do, they already managed to get him to use six out of seven flames.

He recoils at the sight of the gun Elda places on the table as a small figure is guided to the room. The girl can't be older than twelve, with dirty blonde hair that falls limply around her ears.

"Experiment series beta will now begin," Elda says into her ever present recorder. If he ever gets out that, along with the gun, is the first thing he'll destroy. "Subject A has shown to be fully Flame active. This series of experiments will determine if possession of a Flame active individual will allow flame activation in the possessor." She points the gun at the girl. "Remember, do this and maybe your group will get extra rations tonight. Maybe extra time in the shower if you are successful." She pulls the trigger and the girl crumples.

And here we go, Hayato thinks as he immediately feels the girl settling into his body. American, is the first thing he realizes. Her thoughts are all in English. Hayato- no- Wendy, that's her name screams as their memories slip together.

It's the worst thing Hayato/Wendy ever felt. They couldn't tell where one begins and the other ends, whose memories belong to who. There is a profound sense of shame as their worst memories are brought to the surface, exposed to a stranger with no way to stop. Private thoughts, desires, dreams, _everything_ is shared between the two till they get a shock from the scientist.

Right, flames. They think and focus, look for the memories. Red, violent flames erupt from his hands, his because Wendy never even heard of flames before her kidnapping. Hayato grasps that difference, the gap in knowledge and pulls himself from Wendy, retreating into the space in his mind that's become so familiar. 

He still hates it, sitting back and watching a stranger use his body, but it is better than the mind meld. He watches as a fist comes to his face, knocking him out and Wendy out of his body. He falls into the darkness gratefully, and wishes he could stay there forever.

It would be better than what's coming.

When he wakes up its to a seven year old boy crying at gunpoint and he realizes he's right.

Its almost one month of experiments as kids are shot in front of him and he's possessed. It's so much harder than when it was with adults; their minds were organized and at least they kept mental shields- the kids never have them. It becomes second nature to retreat into his head, to escape the whirlwind of confusion, fear and panic as his memories and the kids' memories bleed into each other. He learns to shove the memory of flames at them, to give the sick bastards what they want so he gets left alone for a few more hours, no tests, no check ups, no damn guns.

They bring in a boy this time, one with blue hair and a sullen expression. Better than the ones that cry, Hayato thinks as the gun is pointed at Blue's head. The boy raises his head to lock gazes with Hayato, who blinks in surprise as the boy keeps eye contact, no fear or anger on his face.

The bullet hits and Hayato lurches against his bindings.

He's wrong about the anger. This boy is angry, so so angry as he watches through Hayato's eyes as his body is ignored on the floor as their captors wait for Blue to learn how to activate his flames. Blue's attention turns to Hayato and he braces for the next part.

There is silence for a beat and then-

"My name isn't Blue."

Hayato jerks as he's pulled away, out of his safe corner and into a meadow. Sunlight, warm and bright fills the space and blinds him. He shoves his face into his knees, arms covering his eyes as he kneels on something soft and fresh smelling. 

Grass? Hayato cracks open one eye slightly, looking down at the green, green grass poking up between his feet. Slowly and carefully he opens his eyes all the way, blinking at all the _color_ surrounding him. He pokes at a patch of wildflowers and the petals feel like satin, soft and smooth and real. 

"It isn't real," the same boy from before says, stepping next to Hayato. 

"Feels real," Hayato says, still rubbing the petal between his fingers. 

Blue laughs, short and harsh. "It's an illusion, I made it," he says proudly, sitting down on a rock that wasn't there before. Or maybe Hayato didn't notice it. 

So they are still with the damn Estraneo, Hayato digs his other hand into the ground and pulls out a clump of grass in frustration. 

"What's your name?" Blue finally asks probably tired of Hayato destroying his illusion. 

"Hayato Gokudera. You?" 

"Vincenzo."

And that's how Hayato meets the boy who will become Mukuro Rokudo. 

-

They take Vincenzo away, ripping the illusory world to pieces as Hayato's body is shocked repeatedly to force him out. Hayato shudders through the aftershocks as he's dragged out and tossed back into the common room with the rest of the kids. He lands on his front and stays there, his legs are too unsteady to help him up. 

One of the kids, Ariana, he recognizes from the stitches covering her arms, crawls over and starts to drag him along, back into the nest of blankets. His limbs are still numb but he tries to help, and together they crawl across the floor and into the group. 

No one asks if he's ok and Hayato prefers it that way. He's been in the heads of most of these children, the only exceptions being those who are tapped for other experiments that can't be interfered with, like Ken. He knows them all better than he knew his own family, to the point where sometimes its hard to tell if something he remembered was actually his own memory or someone else. 

He falls asleep, cold and in pain and wakes up warm, with the scent of wildflowers in the air. He's back in Vincenzo's meadow. 

He gets up and looks around at the flower covered meadow, and walks. The illusion is good, he can feel the grass bend underneath his bare feet, the flowers tickle at his shins as the sun warms his sickly white skin. Mist flames, a memory that's not his provides, the power to hide and deflect attention. It's useful, so useful even if this is the only thing Vincenzo can do.

There's a tree planted nearby, with Vincenzo sitting under it, arms crossed over one knee as he watches Hayato expectantly. 

"Can you do this to anyone?" Hayato asks, taking a seat in front of him. He doesn't go into the shade, wanting to bask in the sunlight longer. 

Vincenzo shakes his head with a small, secretive smile. "Only those who are similar to me, or people who I've shared a mind with."

Oh, Hayato plays with the grass. That's too bad. He thought maybe some of the other kids would like to stay in the sun for a little while. Ken would like this, a wide open space to run. Ellen, Marco and Daniella all like flowers too. 

Liked. Hayato tugs at the grass harder. Daniella is in a coma, but Marco and Ellen were considered failed experiments and removed. 

Removed, killed, tossed out like garbage. 

So many have died since Hayato was brought here, Ariana, Matteo, Gus, Chikusa, Ken and Willma are the only ones left from the group. How long has it been, months? A year?

How long is Hayato going to last?

A butterfly flutters past and Hayato watches its journey, feeling old. "Do you think you'll die here?" It's a morbid thought, here in the light and surrounded by beauty. 

"I've already died. Three times now." Vincenzo stares across the meadow with an enigmatic smile.

"...are you a ghost?" Hayato asks, wide-eyed with wonder. On one hand, awesome, a real life U.M.A! But on the other hand this kid died. How does that work anyways? He saw him get shot with the bullet. Maybe he's half ghost? Hayato goes to ask when Vincenzo bursts out laughing, clutching his belly and kicking out with his feet. Hayato curls up, his shoulders rising to his ears. 

"You could just say no," he mutters, as Vincenzo's laughs slow to giggles. 

"Sorry, sorry," Vincenzo says, sitting up again this time facing Hayato. "That was the funniest thought. Am I ghost or am I really here? Am I Vincenzo Estraneo" the name is spat out with fury, "or am I the ghost wandering through the second realm?"

"What?" Hayato says. Second realm? This is getting just a little too weird, even for his taste, maybe he should leave.

"The second realm of existence. I went there the second time I died and reincarnated as a ghost, cursed to starve forever. It was better than the first or third realm. Hell isn't very fun," Vincenzo giggles creepily. 

"That sounds like shit," Hayato deadpans, watching Vincenzo warily. The other boy laughs again, loosing the creepy smile and nods. 

"Yes! Absolutely horrible. But I gained the ability to create real illusions so there's that."

Personally Hayato didn't think dying is worth any bullshit magical ability but what did he know? He was only eight. Or nine. 

How old is he now?

Vincenzo keeps talking about the paths of Samsara, about the other two paths he walked when they killed him again and again. How one life he had all his fingernails pulled out and how he learned to fight with the trident he pulls out of thin air. 

"It's my mind, I can make weapons if I want to," Vincenzo says smugly when Hayato yells at him, heart still pounding in fright when the trident was stabbed down in front of him. Vincenzo kindly drops sticks of explosives in Hayato's lap and invites him to a fight. 

Hayato loses, turns out fighting someone in their own mind is not easy, down right impossible if that mind is Vincenzo's. 

"Let's not do that again," Hayato pants out, sprawled like a starfish on the ground. He kicks weakly at Vincenzo  when the other boys smirks down at him, leaning on his trident but still standing. 

"That's fine, it's time for you to wake up anyways," Vincenzo's face shutters, the sly happiness gone as the meadow looses its color, turning black and white. "Try not to die anytime soon."

"Wait," Hayato scrambles up, "Can you bring me here again?" He sounds desperate, he knows it but he's beyond shame and the loss of this wonderful mindscape chills him to the bone. Vincenzo looks surprised but nods just as the illusion unravels and Hayato wakes up to someone dragging him out of the room. 

It's more experiments again, more people shot and digging their fingers into his head and him digging back just to keep some level of control. After another week, in which Chikusa comes back with bandages over his eyes and Gus coming down with a harsh cough, Hayato gets pulled into the dream. 

"So you're still alive." Vincenzo stands underneath a large tree, one that looks vaguely familiar to Hayato. Coming closer he see familiar yet not markings on the bark and realizes it isn't his memory but a girl named Elena. 

"She was going to make her dad build her a tree house," Hayato comments, looking up at the tree. With it's short height and thick sprawling branches it looks fun to climb and hang off of. 

"And now she's dead so it doesn't matter." 

Hayato looks at Vincenzo, a frown on his face. "I was in her head, it doesn't matter if she's dead or not, she loved that tree."

He stays silent and Hayato kicks at the ground for a bit before heaving a sigh and dropping down next to him. 

"What are you doing?" Vincenzo recoils, scooting back when Hayato's arm brushes against him.

"Something we do when someone has a bad day. Or a worse day than usual, I guess," Hayato screws his face up. "Sometimes it helps, sometimes people have to be alone. You've been here for a while I'm guessing and that's not helping so why not try this?" 

Vincenzo stares at Hayato before slowly moving forward so both of them sit side by side, the only point of contact their arms from above the elbow to below the shoulder. Slowly as time went on the meadow slowly gains a deeper depth of color. The sound of moving water and insects flying fill the air as Vincenzo slowly relaxes against Hayato. 

"They killed me again, on purpose." Hayato stays quiet as Vincenzo speaks. "I woke up somewhere in the middle of a battle. There was so much fighting. And people, so many strong people." There's a quiver in his voice as Vincenzo talks about the battles and near constant fighting for the most petty and stupid reasons, by beings so powerful it made the scientists look like slugs in comparison. 

"How did you come back?" Hayato asks quietly, watching Vincenzo's voice falter as he describes his lessons and battles with the beings of the world, the way he keeps his back to the tree and eyes focused on the horizon while his hands play with a small knife, twirling it between his fingers. Shamal could do that, Hayato remembers as the knife flips between tiny fingers and stills, the blade caught tight between the thumb and forefinger.

"I don't know, we'll talk later," Vincenzo dismisses him with a wave, sending him back into the waking world.

It's three days before Hayato gets pulled in again, dropping right next to Vincenzo as they float on a raft. 

"The lake's new," Hayato says in greeting, peering off to the distance where a shoreline is visible, the meadow right behind it. The raft is just long logs bound on either end together with a flat piece of wood nailed to the surface, like someone had an idea of a raft but never really been on one. Not that Hayato can talk, his knowledge of boats is limited to the books he read back at the castle.

"I felt like a change of pace," Vincenzo says, laying back, arms crossed under his head as a pillow.

He looks better, whatever that's worth, Hayato thinks, looking at the translucent skin, just slightly healthier looking than his own and bags under his eyes which have gone from purple to a lighter blue. He must have gotten a break. 

Hayato rubs at his arm, where in the real world a bandage covers the marks from multiple blood draws. They are trying something new again, something to do with flame expression but so far have just collected blood. He hopes it takes a while before they're ready to test on him. Ken couldn't talk after he came back yesterday, opening his mouth just to eat was enough to make him cry. 

He looks down to see Vincenzo watching him quietly, eyes focused on where Hayato's holding his arm. 

"What happened there?" 

"Blood draw," Hayato says shortly. "How did you get back from the battle world?"

Vincenzo laughs and a goosebumps ripple up Hayato's arms. He turns to Hayato with a creepy grin, "I died."

Creep. Hayato glares and shoves him over the edge of the raft. Vincenzo yelps as he goes under, breaking the serene silence with splashes of water and ear blistering curses. Hayato snorts, "Serves you right, jerk."

The water stills as the seconds pass and Vincenzo doesn't surface. Hayato frowns and crawls to the edge of the raft. He peers down at the crystal clear water to the lake bed full of rock and sand but no sign of Vincenzo.

"Vincenzo?" Hayato calls, reaching one hand into the water, flinching back when his hand passes through and comes back cold and wet. The water is real enough at least. "Vincenzo this isn't funny!"

"I think it is."

Hayato looks up as a shadow covers him, a dark blue wave of water rising over the raft. He shouts and grabs at the edges of the raft as it rises, caught up in the undertow of the wave just as water crashes down, shaking the raft. Hayato's breath pushes out of him at the first crash of water, leaving him breathless as pressure squeezes him, plastering him to the floor of the raft when it was done.

"Well?" Vincenzo asks, stepping closer to Hayato, not a drop of water on him "Wasn't that fun?"

"A... asshole," Hayato coughs out, too tired to move. "Quit saying you die, it's not funny."

That shuts Vincenzo up. He frowns down at Hayato before sitting down by his head, legs crossed. "I'm not being funny. Every time they send me somewhere else the only way I get back is dying again."

Hayato turns over to his back so he can see Vincenzo clearly. The other boy stares down at his lap, a blank look on his face. His eyes seem old, older than the ones Hayato's seen in the other kids or any of the adults.

He doesn't like that look.

"That sucks," Hayato says, mustering up the strength to lean up on his elbows. "You said there was an animal path? What was that like? Were you a dog or a cat?"

Vincenzo stares at Hayato uncomprehendingly before launching into a tirade about how boring life as a cow was like, and how he never wants to think about milk or beef again. Hayato laughs and pokes fun at Vincenzo, saying he'll never grow tall if he doesn't drink milk. 

It was a good day, Hayato thinks back when he's surrounded by darkness and pain. He clutches that memory close for days as one by one kids continue dying. Ariana lasts the longest, an entire two months after the day Matteo falls asleep and doesn't wake up but even she withers away, quite literally. Some new weapon they devised, Hayato vaguely remembers the adults talking excitedly about a breakthrough. 

He tries to remember her smile, the way she kept her hair long and clean despite the limited resources they had and not how small she looked when they put her in the body bag. 

It's just him, Ken, Chikusa left from their original set. The groups have become so small that the adults start to consolidate them into one room. To save space, Hayato sneers. 

The only good thing is that Hayato finally sees Vincenzo in person again. The real thing is different than the boy Hayato plays with in the meadow. He seems smaller, and doesn't speak even when Hayato walks over and sits next to him near the folded up mats that serve as their beds.  Hayato's starting to think that maybe he is going crazy, that maybe that boy in the meadow is just his broken mind trying to find peace when a weight falls against his arm. Vincenzo's arm presses against his bit by bit but it's there and solid, just like in the meadow months ago. Hayato blinks back tears and leans back.

Vincenzo doesn't talk, at all. The only time he does is when he pulls Hayato into his dreams and there they laugh and scream as they run through the grass, illusory  sunlight warm on their skins. 

Chikusa starts to wear bandages around his head to stop the bleeding.

Hayato learns that Vincenzo really hates getting mud in his hair. 

Ken's teeth become permanently sharp. They also grow back quickly, they find out when Ken loses three teeth after biting one of the adults in the arm. 

Vincenzo teaches Hayato how to safely navigate his borrowed memories. 

The days pass like that, slowly. Pain during the day with relief and pseudo freedom at night. Then they take Vincenzo and he doesn't come back for days. 

Hayato's pulled into the dream in the middle of his own torture, the machines surrounding him and the tubes pumping chemicals into him gone, leaving him in the middle of the meadow. Only its not. 

Hayato looks around in horror at the barren ground, the grass and flowers razed to ash. Hannah's tree in the distance is blackened and cracked down the middle and the lake is gone completely. He takes a step forward and realizes the ringing in his ears is actually screams, coming from everywhere. Like a damn breaking the scream grows louder, pained and horrified, shaking the ground from the force of it and he falls to the dirt, covering his ears with his hands. 

The screams continue, on and on. Hayato staggers to his feet, hands still clamped over his ear and starts walking. The skeletons of plant life fall apart as his feet shuffle forward, one foot in front of the other. Direction doesn't matter, it never does in the meadow. As long as he keeps walking he'll find Vincenzo, that's how it works. 

Dirt squishes between his toes, wetness seeping up and mixing with the ashes into a dull brown slurry that makes it hard to walk. His foot slips and he falls face forward into mud, some of it falling into his open mouth. The copper tang of blood fills his mouth and he spits, trying to get the familiar taste out of his mouth. He wipes his hands on his shorts leaving behind streaks of grey ash and red blood. 

He pushes himself up and runs, deeper into the bog that springs up around him. Blood takes place of water as ugly black plants sprout, tangling his feet and trying to trip him but he keeps going. There's a shadow in the distance, a small copse of trees with sharp thorny vines surrounding each branch and crawling up the trunks. Hayato stops in front of them and reaches out to a vine only for the thorns to bite deep into his palms.

"Crap," Hayato mutters, cradling his bleeding hands to his chest. He glares at the vines and reaches out again, this time with his hands covered in Storm flames. The vines disintegrate but new ones take their place, more with larger thorns bristling at him.

Hayato stares at them, restraining the urge to kick at them before taking a deep breath. Alright, if destruction didn't work how about this?

Rain flames fill the air, tranquility giving the environment an eerie feeling, like the calm before the flood. Still, the vines loosen their grasp enough for Hayato to slip past.

The screams stop and Hayato fights through the branches, thorns tearing at skin and clothing alike as he reaches the center where Vincenzo sits up to his waist in a pool of blood. 

"Vincenzo?" Hayato whispers, dread sitting low in his stomach as he gets closer. Vincenzo doesn't answer him, doesn't look up as Hayato slips into the puddle, keeping his head facing down. "Hey?"

Hayato reaches out to shake his shoulder and jumps when Vincenzo's hand grabs his wrist in a bruising grip, the bones creaking dangerously. Vincenzo tilts his head up and Hayato has to stop himself from rearing back.

In place of his right eye is a gaping, bloody hole, bleeding into the bog.

"They took your eye?" Hayato whispers, horrified. Vincenzo looks through Hayato, dirty and covered in blood when he always makes sure to look clean and bright.

"It's so stupid," Vincenzo says, giggling softly.

"Vincenzo?" Hayato tries to pull away but is held fast, the pit in his stomach growing larger the longer Vincenzo laughs. 

"People. People are so stupid, so blind that they can't even see what's in front of them! So possessed by their selfish wants," Vincenzo lets go of Hayato's wrists in favor of his shirt, tugging him closer. "They should die, they should all die! The stupid sheep don't deserve to live!" His remaining eye is wide open, pupil blown wide as his sanity dances on a knife's edge and Hayato is the only person around to help.

He isn't even vaguely qualified for this.

"Where did you go this time?" Hayato asks. Only the paths of reincarnation can get to Vincenzo like this, even more than the experiments, more than being trapped like mice in a cage. Those hands slip from his shirt to his throat and Hayato tenses as one hand lays flat against his jugular while the other curls beneath his jaw, thumb fitting against the front of his throat.

"The realm of humans," Vincenzo croons out, his hands tightening and his thumb digging into his throat. Hayato wheezes and grabs at Vincenzo's hand but can't dislodge it, his grip too strong. 

"Vin...cen...zo!" Hayato chokes out, spots forming in front of his eyes. The hand lets go and Vincenzo stares at him, pale and wide eyed as he coughs, looking afraid for the first time since Hayato's known him. 

"I didn't mean that, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I didn't mean it," he babbles, pulling Hayato's hands away from his throat to look at the bright red marks rising to the surface. He tries to touch one of the marks but Hayato flinches away and immediately regrets it when Vincenzo pulls back, stricken. 

"It's okay," Hayato croaks out as Vincenzo moves away, sinking further into the blood. 

"No it's not."

Hayato doesn't know what to say to that, and sits back feeling useless as Vincenzo starts crying. Big, clear tears fall from both eye and eye socket and drop into the blood, the pool rising with each drop. "Stop that!" Hayato orders, reaching out to shake Vincenzo by the shoulders. "No, seriously, stop crying."

His eyesight blurs as he starts crying too, hiccuping as Vincenzo shakes his head and pulls away again, the blood up to his chest now. The cuts on his arms and face burn and the places where the blood has dried are sticky, and Vincenzo's stifled sobs echo loudly in his ear, making Hayato cry harder in time with Vincenzo's sobs. 

Vincenzo doesn't like to be touched. Hayato knows because he doesn't like to be touched either, feels fear and mistrust towards every hand that comes near him, trained through trauma to associate touch with pain. The only time he can stand touching someone else is here, in the illusion where no matter what happens he can't get hurt, Vincenzo won't let it happen. Hayato doesn't know if its instinct to reach out, or maybe between the two of them he's the one with more positive experience with human touch (as little as he got before running away) but he throws his arms around Vincenzo, pulling the tow of them out of the puddle. 

His arms tighten as Vincenzo struggles fiercely, blood splashing around them as Vincenzo screams again, just like when Hayato first got pulled into the illusion. Thin hands claw at his arms, drawing blood before giving up and wrapping around Hayato's shoulders as Vincenzo buries his head into the spot between his neck and shoulder and cries. Shudders run through him and into Hayato, and he rocks the two of them together on a patch of grass, his own hiccuping sobs joining the lament. 

Ever since he came here Vincenzo was the strong one. The one to pull him away from the torture, away from the thoughts of violence and aching tiredness buried underneath. He was the one who could build someplace beautiful, where they could play and laugh and for a brief moment forget about the world outside. 

To see him like this, to see what the meadow has become frightens Hayato to the core as their sobs even out until the only thing holding them up is Hayato, Vincenzo curls up in his lap breathing harshly into the wet cloth at his shoulder. The pool of blood recedes, pulling back from them like the tide and disappears into air. The trees stay the same, heavy and thick, a forest of vines covering every square inch like in Sleeping Beauty.

All we need is a castle, Hayato thinks as the oppressive atmosphere lightens, a weight he didn't know he was carrying gone as Vincenzo slips into a dream. How does that even work, dreaming within a dream?

"Urasai," Vincenzo mutters. 

He blinks. "What?"

"I said shut up, go to sleep."

"No you didn't," Hayato shakes Vincenzo awake but the other boy growls and vines rise up to drag Hayato flat against the ground, now a soft carpet of grass instead of mud. Vincenzo makes a noise at the back of his throat and sprawls over Hayato, head resting on his chest. 

"Sleep now, talk later."

Hayato grumbles but closes his eyes. When he opens them again he's not surprised to find himself staring at a grey ceiling.

-

It takes another two hours of experiments before he's tossed back into the room and even more time before Vincenzo is brought back. There's an eye patch over his right eye and the remaining one roams over the children before locking onto Hayato. 

"That looks painful," Hayato says, moving over to make room in "their" spot. The rest of the room is spread out in front of them, with folded a mats and the boxes holding the blankets bracketing them. Ken and Chikusa also sit together in one of the corners, Ken glowering at anyone as he sits in front of Chikusa, blocking the other boy from sight. 

Vincenzo tilts his head towards them and Hayato explains, "Ken just got measured for molds. All his teeth grew back in," he didn't mention the pained way Ken curled into himself just last week when they yanked out the rest of his baby teeth, "I don't know what happened to Chikusa, it was before I got back."

Hayato continues to tell him about the condition of every child in the room with them, conscious of the almost angry energy running through his friend. As each person is accounted for Vincenzo calms down until Hayato reaches the last one, Freida, safely asleep next to Paulo. 

Satisfied, Vincenzo leans into Hayato closes his eyes and goes to sleep. Not even a second later Hayato feel his eyes drifting shut, and opens them to the meadow. To his relief it's almost back to normal, a carpet of green grass spreading out underneath a blue sky. 

Vincenzo steps next to him, and says something that sounds like gibberish. 

"What?" Hayato asks, tilting his head backwards to look at him in confusion. 

A frustrated expression passes over Vincenzo's face and he repeats, "I was saying hello."

Hayato squints up at him, "I'm pretty sure that was not Italian."

"Chinese, I think I was speaking Japanese before, too."

What? "Where did you learn those?" Hayato asks as Vincenzo takes a seat, immediately leaning against him.

"Fifth realm. I went to the realm of humans," Vincenzo finally says, flopping down so his head is cushioned in Hayato's lap.

"But, we are in the realm of humans?" Hayato says.

"Well, it's not like I know how it works. I just went through this man's head, I saw his entire life."

"Was he Japanese?" Hayato asks.

"I just said I watched a man live out his entire life-"

"You said you went through his head, don't exaggerate, hey!"

Hayato yelps as Vincenzo grabs his nose and shoves the other boy off his lap. Water appears from thin air, dousing him as he grabs at Vincenzo, trying to shove his face in the dirt. His hands are grabbed instead and they roll together through the grass and come to a stop with Vincenzo yanking Hayato's arm up behind his back.

"Yield!" Vincenzo says, shoving Hayato's face into the ground. Hayato squirms but a warning squeeze to his arm has him yielding with little grace. Vincenzo lets go and rolls off his back, letting Hayato up. He rubs his face, the dirt on him disappearing as Vincenzo summons a field of daisies and starts weaving them together. Hayato watches as slowly white and purple flowers form a chain.

"It wasn't only that man," Vincenzo says, reaching for a daisy a little away from him. Hayato starts picking at the flowers around him, handing them one by one to Vincenzo as he adds to the chain. "It wasn't long but I was in her head, someone I never knew before. She was Chinese, and had a daughter who's part of some hospital staff, I wasn't too sure on the details."

The chain grows long enough to touch the ground, and Vincenzo takes the ends and twists them together to make a crown. He looks down at it impassively before reaching out and dropping it on Hayato's head.

"Hey!" Hayato touches the crown, careful not to actually dislodge it, even though it's girly.

"It looks good on you," Vincenzo says, already starting on another chain, this time with blue and red wildflowers in the mix. "The woman knew how to make these."

Hayato pauses in his grumbling to take a closer look at his friend. Vincenzo's eyes are fixed on the flower crown as his fingers keep adding flowers like they've done this for years when Hayato knows that Vincenzo has no clue about flowers at all. The pallor of his skin is still pale, better than it was before in the blood bog but still not healthy. Not that Hayato can say any of them where healthy, taking a look down at the veins peeking starkly through his skin.

It can't be possessing people that's bothering him, Hayato thinks. Despite his personal hatred for the bullet, Vincenzo is scarily compatible with it, able to possess people with ease.

One or two people, even complete strangers shouldn't be such a problem, given that his control over his mind was really good.

"How many people did you go through. Was it just two?" Hayato holds his hand out when Vincenzo motions for him to do so and holds back a sigh as a flower bracelet is tied around his wrist.

Vincenzo doesn't say anything and Hayato sighs for real, settling in for a long wait. As long as he waited, Vincenzo will eventually start talking, it is just a matter of patience, Hayato learned the hard way.

"It was more," he eventually says, once a necklace, two bracelets and three rings are added to Hayato's collection of flower jewelry. Hayato makes a small noise at the back of his throat, just enough to let him know he was listening. "So many, TOO many people. I got lost," Vincenzo pauses, staring over the ground at something unseen.

Hayato shifts and punches him lightly on the shoulder, "You're back now, so don't over think it."

Vincenzo looks at him, his eye old and with a strange anger buried inside them. Hayato scowls at him, daring him to start a fight when the mood over Vincenzo breaks and he smirks at Hayato.

"What?"

"Nothing," Vincenzo says, and continues his story. "I wandered through the human realm, shadowing people until I ended up in the body of a dying man. Then I woke back up in my normal body." He strokes a petal for  a minute before continuing, "They had my eye out in a jar."

Assholes, Hayato thinks, fighting back a shudder. He's been lucky so far that he hasn't lost any limbs with all the testing they did trying to get him to master Sun and Lightning flames. One of the boys, Hayato doesn't remember his name, had gotten gangrene somehow and they never saw him again.

They all got shots the next day though, something about immunizations. 

"That doesn't explain the languages," Hayato says, trying to change the subject.

The chain loops back on itself to make a second row.

"It's like when they shove people in your brain, things get left over."

He shudders, hunching in on himself, the warmth of the false sun far away for a moment. He doesn't has difficulty separating his memories from the rest anymore thanks to Vincenzo but they still slip through sometimes, when he's asleep.

Vincenzo says something, in that language again and Hayato frowns.

"That wasn't Italian."

"I know," Vincenzo rolls his eyes, "I was asking if you wanted to learn?"

A chance to learn a foreign language. Not usually his favorite subject but, Hayato leans forward without a grumble as the triple looped necklace is dropped over his head, he's bored.  
  
Horrible to thing about it, they're kept captive and experimented on but in between that all they have to do is wait for the next torture. Hayato has started keeping mental lists for how to make dynamite and how explosives work to keep occupied.

"Yes."

Vincenzo stands up and says something in Japanese, or Chinese? He can't tell.  
  
"I said you look very cute," Vincenzo leans back on his heels with a smirk, and runs to the lake as Hayato chases him down, flower crown flying from his head.

And so Hayato learns Japanese and Mandarin, and in turn practices his rusty French and English with Vincenzo.

Maybe its the stress in their waking lives or maybe both of them were bored but they pick up the languages quickly and switch between them with little trouble. Sometimes Hayato ventures into his borrowed memories on his own and learns more about science and math, the latter which Vincenzo didn't care for, or understand.  
  
It's close to a year from Hayato's kidnapping when things change forever.

-  
  
"Subject A shows signs of extreme stress, will maintain for five minutes." The words are said but barely understood as Hayato shrieks and struggles against his bonds, trying to get away from the pain.

They are trying something new, something different than just getting him to use flames or get people to access them faster. The pain lessens as blue washes over him. Rain flames, stronger than he ever gotten them before numb the pain to a point where he can breathe.

The pain starts up again as the machine hums, stripping away his flames, changing them, converting them into something else, something he doesn't like. 

The hum stops and the machine is pulled away from above him. The skin under and just around the electrodes patched to his forehead and down his arms is numb while the rest of him shudders as the pain goes away in a snap. A gloved hand reaches for his arm, and he flinches, struggling against the restraints holding him to the bed. The scientist ignores his struggles and quickly ties off his arm and presses a needle into his vein, blood rising out and into the collection vials. 

His other arm is stretched out and he turns to see a syringe, one of the large ones with a thick needle pierce his arm and inject a clear fluid. It burns.

It burns, it _burnsburnsburns_. Hayato can't scream, can't get the breath for it as his lungs join the rest of his body in burning up, fire eating through him.

It isn't just pain, Hayato knows pain, can deal with pain. _This is not pain_. 

It's burning, a hunger that eats through everything and leaves nothing in it's wake, it's the quiet of the night deep in the mountains right before the storm. It's the way clouds grow and grow, never stopping, the way the rain washes everything in its path away. It's the mist covering and hiding, always ready to lead one astray, to hide, to protect, to mislead. It's the sun shining through, driving through everything to shine bright, blinding, blistering. It's the flash of lightning sending scorching heat through his spine, the jagged pieces ripping through his flesh as it passes through his body. It's the open sky, nothing like the one in Vincenzo's illusions. It's freedom and power and acceptance, everything that Hayato wants. It's suffocating in how vast it is and everything stops and then he feels... nothing. 

No. 

He feels _alone._

The lights flicker and there's movement around him. He opens his eyes to see one of the scientists run out the door, following the crowd of adults storming down the hall. The lab empties leaving only one scientist, a man they call Santino, who scribbles down notes on his notebook as Hayato slowly moves his fingers. 

When whatever they were trying to do stopped, the pain did too. That echo of loneliness, the vision of the wide sky still aches his heart but physically he's fine. He wiggles his fingers one by one and then his toes, clenching them both, relishing in the almost painful pressure before relaxing. Each muscle is tensed and flexed as much as he can behind Santino's back when screams echo through the door. Santino frowns and walks to the door, yanking it open. 

From his place Hayato can make out a man running away, blood dripping where he clutches his side before Santino steps through the door, pulling out his gun from his holster. He doesn't get a chance to raise it as another man tackles him down and slashes at his throat with a knife.

Hayato stares wide-eyed as the attacker turns the knife to himself, slitting his own throat before collapsing on top of Santino. 

_'Hayato'_

He jumps at the touch of a familiar mind against his own. "Vincenzo?" He whispers, struggling against the bindings. 

_'It's Mukuro.'_

"What?" Hayato asks, squirming to get one hand loose of the straps. All they have today were the basic straps going across his body, easy enough to slip through as long as he didn't care about rope burn. 

_'My name, my new name. I am Rokudo Mukuro.'_

"Why Japanese?" Hayato wonders, one hand free. The feeling of Vincenzo's mind is...strange. Frightening in a way it never is, not to him. "What happened?"

_'I'll explain later. We're leaving now.'_

"We? Wait, what are you talking about?" Hayato demands from thin air as Vincenzo's mind disconnects, leaving him alone in a room with two corpses and only one of his limbs free. 

Asshole.

Worry and dread mix with an inkling of hope as he twists and squirms out of his bindings. All those memories and forced lessons on how to use his flames come in handy as he uses Storm flames with a core of Cloud to cut away the bindings. He staggers to his feet, shivering in the cool air as he steps over the bodies at the door and moves towards the room where they were kept. 

He meets Ken and Chikusa on his way there, the two of them moving slowly down the hall to where the adults were heading. 

"What's going on?" Hayato whispers, falling into step beside Ken with Chikusa gripping Ken's shirt tightly behind them. 

"Don't know," Ken is equally quiet as they slowly approach the door. Hayato and Ken give each other a look. Ken has his nose scrunched up like he smells something bad and Hayato braces himself as they both reach out and open the door.

Blood, so much blood. It drips from the walls and even the ceiling in places where the arterial spray flew high into the air. Dead bodies littered the floor and the walls as the stench of death fills the air. He hears Ken gagging next to him but is more focused on one person still standing. 

In the middle of the carnage is Vincenzo, a creepy smile on his face and the head of a trident in hand.

"Ku fu fu, that was rather easy, wasn't it?" He asks and turns to them. Hayato bites back a gasp at the bright red eye that stares at the three of them. Even in the dim light Hayato can tell that the eye has no pupil but a Japanese character in the middle.

"I am Rokudo Mukuro," Vincenzo says in Japanese. "Do you want to come with me?" He switches to Italian as he looks at Ken and Chikusa, who look between him and the bodies with wide eyes filled with awe.

Vincenzo starts laughing, a small giggle that turns into a robust laugh that has the hairs at the back of his neck rising.

"Bath," is what comes out of Hayato's mouth, catching the attention of everyone and cutting off Vincenzo's laugh.

"What?" Ken asks, looking at him like he's crazy.

"You need a bath, we all need a bath before we leave. And clothes," Hayato starts making mental lists. It's a depressingly short one, but the first item is, "Ken, Chikusa, take Vi-"

"Mukuro," Vincenzo interrupts.

"Mukuro to the showers, try to get some clean clothes too."

"Why do we have to listen to you?" Ken says, squaring his shoulder to glare at Hayato, who just glares back, unimpressed.

"Do you want to search the bodies with me then?" Hayato asks with a sneer, nodding when Ken shrinks back, unsure. "Go get a shower and meet up in the kitchens."

Chikusa is already heading out the door, walking unsteadily towards the showers. Ken hesitates but goes after him, leaving Vincenzo alone with Hayato for a moment.

"Searching their bodies?" Vincenzo raises a brow and looks proud.

"They might be carrying something useful," Hayato says, distaste sticking to the back of his throat as he pats down the front and pockets of one man, taking his wallet and access keys. When he looks up Vincenzo is still there and he tries to get some answers. 

"What happened here Vin-"

A hand reached to to cover his mouth hard as Vincenzo stares down at him with cold eyes. "Don't use that name, Hayato. That boy died a long time ago, my name is Mukuro now." Vin-Mukuro's hand slip off his face and he heads out the door, leaving Hayato in a room filled with corpses. 

Hayato blinks back burning eyes and starts frisking down the bodies, moving from one to the other methodically. By the time he's finished with the room he has a collection of wallets and weapons, all wrapped up in the least bloodstained jacket he could find. 

He closes the door behind him as looks down the hallway, at the two bodies lying at the doorway to the lab he was being tested in. His heart beats fast but he makes himself walk down the hall and frisk the two men before carefully entering the lab. He doesn't look at the chair, or the bloodied surgical tools as he walks towards the desk tucked away in a corner.

He grabs the folders there, the piles of notebooks neatly labelled by serial number and wraps them in a clean lab coat. He does the same for the next seven lab spaces, collecting notebooks and anything he finds useful. He liberates chemicals and, with a hesitant use of Mist flames makes two wagons to hold everything. The last room he finds a computer, the only one in the entire labspace and he turns it on. 

The page for a password blinks at him and Hayato, remembering one of the scientists had faulty memory looks underneath the keyboard to find a slip of paper with a list of passwords.

On the computer, he barely remembers his tutors showing him how to use one, he finds files and files of documents, most of which he can't understand. What he does know is that it's all dangerous so he turns the monitor screen off and makes sure that the password is memorized before putting it back under the keyboard.

Grabbing his illusory wagons he pulls his loot out of the labs to the kitchens. It's not that hard to find, all he has to do is follow Ken's voice.

The kitchen is large, enough to make food for the many children experimented here as well as the adults staying in the labs. Ken and Chikusa sit at the counter, Ken stuffing his face with food while Chikusa plays with it with a fork. Both are in clean clothes, though it's just a set of plain shorts and a tee.

Mukuro sits across from them, eating his own dinner at a sedate pace. He would be the picture of unconcerned if it isn't for the trident set within easy reach under his chair. They look up when he enters, and Mukuro nudges another plate beside him.

"Microwave dinners," Mukuro explains as Hayato washes his hands, scrubbing hard to get the blood off. He hesitates before ducking his head under the kitchen sink, washing his face and up to his shoulders too. "It seemed easy enough to make."

Hayato dries off and takes a seat, picking up a fork. Maybe he should be more concerned, but it all feels surreal. Here they are eating dinner like normal kids while their tormentors lie dead. They are free, they can go but here they are, eating, washing up, going to bed like good little boys. 

Not in that room, of course. Mukuro leads them to a set of private rooms, and they all pile into one, using the keys Hayato liberated. The rooms are small but relatively comfortable, with a bed that had pillows and clean blankets. They bring over a bed from the other room and push them together, climbing on with Ken and Chikusa in the middle, Mukuro and Hayato at either end. There's brief squabbling that is put an end to by Mukuro's threats and they slowly drift to sleep. 

Except for Hayato.

The computer still calls to him, a memory pushing at the back of his mind. He shoves his head into the pillow, trying to push it back, to forget but gives himself a headache in the process.

The memory slips in anyways, and Hayato finds himself easing out of bed, careful not to wake Ken or Chikusa and slowly walking out the door. 

"Where are you going?" Mukuro whispers.

Hayato jumps, heart almost bursting out of his chest as he whirls to face the other boy who is sitting up in bed.

"I need to see something, that's all," Hayato says, reaching for the doorknob, "go back to bed."

He opens the door a sliver and eels out, shutting it closed softly. So of course when he's half way down the hall he hears the door open again and soft footsteps patter down the hall to him.

"I said, where are you going?" Mukuro's voice is hard, and Hayato bristles, hands clenching into fists as his sides.

"No where," Hayato brushes off the hand that reaches for him, anger flooding his veins, fraying at the tenuous hold on his temper. "You're not my dad, I don't have to answer to you."

The world spins as his hand is caught and he's pushed into the wall, one hand pinned to his stomach with the other slammed into the wall beside his head. He wheezes, blinking in confusion as Mukuro's eyes bore into him with a frantic anger, his face twisted in a look that he doesn't recognize.

"You are mine," he snarls, squeeze his grip on Hayato's hands to the point where they ache. "You don't get to leave, not you!" He shouting in Hayato's face, shaking him slightly so that Hayato's back slams up against the wall.

Hayato struggles, tries to get free as panic clamps down on his lungs the longer Mukuro holds him and refuses to let go. Flames, strong and red as blood spark into being around his hands and the tight binds are gone, and Hayato slumps down to the ground, breathing quickly. Black spots dance in front of his eyes and he feels like he's choking even though he's breathing so much. Why can't he breathe?

A hand is slapped across his face and the pain brings him to the present, his voice breaking into sobs that stutters and shakes as tears fall down his face.

"-sorry, I'm sorry! Just stop crying!" Mukuro sounds panicked, which sets him off again because what will he do now? Will he try to keep Hayato locked up again just like the damn scientists?

"I want Vincenzo," the words are out before he can even process thinking them but it's true. He wants Vincenzo, wants his friend, not this person who looks like him but scares Hayato to the core.

He wants his friend.

"What does that even mean? I am Vincenzo!" Mukuro says, shaking Hayato's shoulders but he shakes his head, turning his face away.

"No you're not!" Hayato says, snot running down his face and chocking him up. "Vincenzo won't hurt me-" those hands flinch back from his shoulders like dropping a hot iron, "and he won't want to trap me either!" Hayato finishes, trying to wipe the snot and tears away with his hands only to spread them more. He feels drained, the tension from day leeched away with his will and he slumps back against the wall, tears falling down his face again. In front of him Mukuro watches with furrowed eyebrows but Hayato meets his gaze fearlessly, too tired to do anything but feel numb.

The number in his right eye changes and they're surrounded by wildflowers, just like in the meadow.

"I would have put you to sleep but you'd complain too much," Mukuro tries for a light tone, settling back on his heels to sit and stare at him. When his expression doesn't change Mukuro grimaces and says, "I saw the final hell, the realm of the divine." Hayato blinks, "I was a god and I could see, see the paths that make up the circle of reincarnation."

His voice grows dark, gleeful, "I was a god and I lived in bliss beyond this world, with no pain or suffering. But that was a lie too," Mukuro grabs Hayato's hands, pulling them away from where they curl against his chest. "This world, all worlds are full of suffering, Hayato. The only way to cleanse it is to wash it away, starting with the filthy mafia." The venom in his last two words chill Hayato, and the red eye seems to glow. Around them the wildflowers disappear as the sky turns red and the tang of blood fills the air. "We will bathe the world in blood, wash away all the filth. Won't that be good Hayato? Won't that be justice?"

"No," Hayato says, feeling sick as he watches the illusion turn the meadow into a sea of blood.

A hurt look flashes over Mukuro's face. "What do you mean, no?" He laughs and squeezes down on Hayato's arms, fingers digging into forming bruises. "You can't mean you like this world, do you?"

Hayato glares at him and shoves Mukuro back, breaking the illusion with a flare of Storm flames. Using the wall to stand up he continues, "No, I think you're crazy! Why would you want to destroy the world? That's the dumbest thing you ever said." 

Mukuro gets to his feet, "Dumb?" He asks, "You're being stubborn, why would you want to stay in a world like this?" 

Hayato stays silent, eyes swollen from crying. He doesn't have an answer. Why does he care about the world, it never helped him. It let him be experimented on, cut open and injected over and over again. It let those adults test and experiment on all of the kids till the four of them were the only survivors. 

Mukuro's eyes search his face and he smirks, because he's right. Hayato doesn't have any reason to protect the world. No reason at all. 

But the world didn't deserve what Mukuro would unleash on it, Hayato can feel it in the deepest parts of him.

"Does it matter if I have a reason or not? Wrong is still wrong," Hayato says quietly. He hears Mukuro's sharp intake of breath, and then-

"If that's how you feel then you have no use to me."

Hayato's eyes snap to him. Mukuro stares at him blankly, no warmth, no emotion at all in his eyes. "What?" He croaks out, throat tight. 

Mukuro tilts his head, a cruel smirk twisting his lips. "If you feel this world is worth something, then you aren't worth my time. You should leave."

Cracks run through whatever is left of his heart, digging into tender flesh as Mukuro turns away and heads back to the room. Hayato waits, staring down the hallway one hand twitching as if to reach out.

Mukuro doesn't turn back, and he strains his ears for the sound of the door clicking shut. The silence afterwards presses down on him, suffocating and heavy as Hayato stands there alone.

Alone again.

Hayato turns away and books it to the computer.

An hour later he slips out of the base, a quarter of the money and several weapons from his corpse-robbing in his pocket as he steps outside for the first time in a year.

The sky is dark, inky but there is light in the distance. A city. Hayato takes one last look back at the abandoned factory that served as the base's cover and walks forwards, towards the light.


End file.
